Landlords violate state renter laws

Stories accusing renters of “cashing in” and being “wily” are unbelievably misguided (“Tenants cash in despite risks,” Star-Advertiser, June 21).

The landlord-tenant relationship in Hawaii is unbalanced, as most power lies in the hands of the landlord. Renters comprise almost half our residents and accusations that renters are gaming the system are laughable.

What should be investigated is how landlords violate Hawaii Revised Statute 521 (the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code) and how they are very aware of tenants’ inability to fight in a court of law. Subletting falls squarely within the provisions and restrictions of the law and is a manini issue.

What’s been left out of vacation and term-rental discussions is the state has no mechanism to track which landlords are cheating the system. The tax department has zero ability to ensure that landlords are paying the general excise tax along with state and federal taxes. There’s no database of rental units statewide.

The state should focus on collecting taxes from undeclared rentals. Start advocating on behalf of tenants paying grossly inflated rents and stop pandering to the needs of greedy landlords.

Kai Lokahi

Makawao, Maui

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No public mandate for city’s rail project

Tom Koenig’s letter, “Roth repeats same anti-rail arguments” (Star-Advertiser, June 22), seems to defy the evidence.

No voter ever approved a rail project that is now 300 percent over the original official cost ($3 billion to more than $10 billion).

The mayor who conceived a heavy-rail mandate shortly after his election, Mufi Hannemann, has never again held elected office, even though he has run for governor and for Congress against barely known candidate Tulsi Gabbard.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano lost the mayor’s race to Kirk Caldwell, but only after the union PAC, Pacific Resources Partnership, spent more than $3 million in negative and allegedly defamatory advertising against Caye-tano. It was later sued, and apologized. But Caldwell still became mayor.

Heavy traffic will not change once rail is operational, but the operation and maintenance will cost Honolulu taxpayers more than $110 million annually.

Koenig needs to provide better evidence that anti-rail arguments haven’t actually been proven true.

Garry P. Smith

Ewa Beach

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Reduce number of rail stations

I live in Waipahu and they’ve started building the stations for the new rail transit system.

There are going to be 21 of these stations that are costing our residents millions in construction costs. They are extremely expensive, and I personally don’t think we need that many stations, and as large as they are.

Eliminate a few of these stations and the rail project could be saved, instead of having people on fixed incomes paying these extra costs to accommodate the rail.

Our mayor wants to pass the costs to the people of Honolulu by raising fees and continuing to impose the 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge.

The maximum number of stations should be about 14. This is a rail, not a bus that stops every 500 yards.

William (Bill) T. Pirtle

Waipahu

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Navy didn’t answer Red Hill questions

Storing jet fuel 100 feet over Oahu’s drinking water is a bad idea and risks the water supply for 400,000 residents.

So when the Navy held its public meeting on the Red Hill fuel tank leaks at Moanalua Middle School on June 22, why didn’t it present an update on how the leaked fuel is moving underground, along with a Q&A session?

Instead, the entire program was a poster session that did not provide a meaningful discussion of the risks.

The Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health questioned the Navy’s work plan because there was insufficient data and analysis to establish likely groundwater flow beneath and around the leaked fuel tank in order to reasonably predict the movement of potential contamination. Yet the Navy did not share this at the public meeting.

The Navy is not being transparent. Whatever confidence I had in the Navy to build a fail-safe system to protect Oahu’s drinking water has been shaken.

Nathan Yuen

Ewa Beach

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Armed citizenry created America

A recent letter doubted a “Second Amendment-protected weapon” ever prevented “oppression” (“Guns don’t offer much protection,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, June 22).

The “Shot Heard Round the World” was fired from a citizen-owed rifle by a pre-American citizen of Lexington, Mass. It prevented soldiers of a corrupt old monarchy from disarming colonialist citizens. That gave birth to America with a Declaration of Independence that claimed our rights in the name of the Creator of the universe. And the Founders wrote a Constitution to institute government to protect those rights, including a guarantee that corrupt politicians could never enjoy the dream of every successful tyranny ever — a disarmed citizenry.

George L. Berish

Kaakako

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Don’t bother with pedestrian bill

When the City Council tried to pass a “distracted pedestrian in the crosswalk” law, I looked at it as a way that government keeps us safe from ourselves, like the seat-belt law.

Then I read an online article that said that 7 percent of Americans believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. That’s 17 million people! Really? Are you kidding me?

Apparently not.

Conclusion: Do not pass the distracted pedestrian bill. Stupidity is not against the law.

Robert K. Soberano

Moiliili